244( BIRDS 



noted "for the beauty of its coloring and the bold style of 

 its markings." 



Mr. H. W. Henshaw, who was the first scientist to dis- 

 cover that the Rivoli was a member of the bird fauna of the 

 United States, thus describes its nest: "It is composed of 

 mosses nicely woven into an almost circular cup, the interior 

 possessing a lining of the softest and downiest feathers, 

 while the exterior is elaborately covered with lichens, which 

 are securely bound on by a network of the finest silk from 

 spiders' webs. It was saddled on the horizontal limb of an 

 alder, about twenty feet above the bed of a running moun- 

 tain stream, in a glen which was overarched and shadowed 

 by several huge spruces." 



The note of this bird gem of the pine-clad mountains is 

 a "twittering sound, louder, not so shrill, and uttered more 

 closely than those of the small hummers." 



As the Rivoli hovers over the mescal and gathers from its 

 flowers the numerous insects that infest them, or as it takes 

 the sweets from the flowers of the boreal honeysuckle, one is 

 reminded of the words of the poet : 



"Art thou a bird, a bee, or butterfly?" 

 "Each and all three — a bird in shape am I, 



A bee, collecting sweets from bloom to bloom, 



A butterfly in brilliancy of plume." 



RUBY-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD 



The Ruby-throated Humming-bird is decidedly the 

 smallest feathered creature inhabiting North America at 

 large east of the great plains ; it winters in southern Florida 



